278 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



more. These are exactly like the eggs of the other crows, except in 

 size. They show all the ordinary variations in color, pattern, and 

 markings that are to be found in the eggs of the eastern crow. The 

 measurements of 46 eggs, in the United States National Museum, aver- 

 age 37.17 by 26.97 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 42.9 by 27.4, 37.8 by 28.7, 34.5 by 27.5, and 37.7 by 25.2 

 millimeters. 



Young. — Bendire (1895) says that "both sexes assist in incubation, 

 which lasts from sixteen to eighteen days, while the young remain in 

 the nest about three weeks. Only one brood is raised in a season, but 

 if the first set of eggs is taken they will lay another, and not infre- 

 quently in the same nest." 



Plunmgcs. — The young fish crow is hatched naked and blind, but it 

 soon acquires a scanty growth of grayish-brown natal down. This, in 

 turn, is replaced by the juvenal plumage, which is practically completed 

 before the young bird leaves the nest. The juvenal body plumage is 

 dull brownish black, blacker above and browner below ; the wings, 

 except the lesser coverts, are much like those of the adult and so is 

 the tail, but they are somewhat less lustrous black with greenish re- 

 flections ; the bill and feet are grayish black. 



The post juvenal molt, which involves the contour plumage and the 

 lesser wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings and tail, begins in 

 July and is completed by September or earlier. This produces a first 

 winter plumage, which is mucli like that of the adult, but somewhat 

 duller. At the first postnuptial molt, which is complete, during the 

 following summer, the young bird becomes fully adult. Adults have one 

 complete, annual molt during summer and early fall. The sexes are 

 alike in all plumages. 



Food. — Like other crows the fish crow is largely omnivorous, with a 

 long list of acceptable material available. As it spends most of its time 

 along the seashore, the banks of streams, and the shores of inland bodies 

 of water, its food consists largely of various kinds of marine or aquatic 

 life, or other material washed up on such shores. It may often be seen 

 hovering over the water, like a gull, looking for floating objects that it 

 can pick up. On the beaches and salt marshes these crows feed on small 

 crabs, especially fiddlers, shrimps, crawfish, dead fish and perhaps some 

 live fish, and any kind of carrion or offal that they can find. They steal 

 the eggs from the nests of terns, willets, Wilson's plovers, and clapper 

 rails. William G. Fargo (1927) says that they have regular feeding 

 stations where they bring their food to eat it ; under a small yellow pine 

 at Wakulla Beach, Fla., in a space about 4 by 6 feet, he found the re- 

 mains of 79 or more clapper rails' eggs, one willet's tgg, two Wilson's 



